GW vs GMU

Just a general impression related to your happiness there, which really should be a top priority, GWU is left of center, GMU is right of center. GMU is also VERY male. Very low female ratio. The building, to me, also feels a little sterile.

Where do you get this info about the political leanings of the two institutions? I was leaning towards GMU because of in-state tuition. but i would prefer not to go to a conservative school. i thought all law schools were generally pretty liberal?

does anyone know how the 2 compare in terms of their part time programs? Is GMU more difficult?

I get the general clue from the old PR's when they used to report it. When I sat in on a GMU class, I definitely would say the student body is conservative. A lot of the pleated khaki pants and power ties crowd. There were 4-5 students in the class who sounded like Rush soundbites. They were arguing with the professor, because they just couldn't comprehend why corporations have to follow labor laws and why workers should have the right to sue their employers when they get injured or unduly fired. In fact, they were arguing corporations should sue employees who quit their jobs.

We had a similar discussion on the Vanderbilt board, but the administrators didn't butt in (it wasn't in the part of the board for that anyhow). But here's an idea- the discussion began when someone asked, albeit in not a clear manner, that if she expressed a liberal idea if she would be shouted down like she was on talk radio. And what do you know, she got shouted down like she was on talk radio, and they all pulled this quote out of her post and used it out of context even after she posted to clarify.

You might try creating a pseudonymn and posting something inflammatory, in this case it was "When I think conservative, I think the opposite of freedom" You'll find out what percentage of people will prove you right and what percentage will defend your slip of the toungue.

There was a scandal a few years ago with GMU and conservative federal judges. I don't remember the specific details but it was something about conservative judges being courted by industries by being sent on golf trips and things like that. I think (this is a very fuzzy memory so forgive me) that GMU would help the companies pretend the trip was "educational."

I visited GMU in the spring of 2001 when I was choosing law schools and found that the students were pretty typical law students. GMU is known as a 'conservative' school because of its faculty, some of whom are well known and economics scholars.

The faculty at GMU tends to be libertarian, not conservative. If you don't know the difference you should. Basically, it means there will be a lot of skepticism of government regulation in all its forms, but you are unlikely to find much intolerance. In terms of students, it is very balanced, but there are a few students who come to GMU because it's one of the few law schools that isn't very liberal, and they tend to be more outspoken, so class discussion tends to seem more conservative than discussion in the hallways or over lunch.